Bangalore’s urban agriculture boom

Bangaloreans are starting a movement to grow organic food for their families.

By Mari Marcel Thekaekara |
New Internationalist
Nov 25, 2011

Excerpt:

Before it hit the headlines in the mid nineties, as a high-tech international ‘IT city’, which Bangalored jobs from all around the globe, Bangalore was known as ‘India’s garden city’, a pensioner’s paradise. It was a charming little town, sleepy and laid back. Everyone took pride in their gardens. Even now, apart from the terrible infrastructure because the city couldn’t cope with the huge influx of people who flooded in to run the IT centres, the old parts of Bangalore town are still charming. Quiet, safe neighbourhoods filled with trees, flowers, cottages, tiled roofs, and nice old houses: generally a far nicer city than Mumbai, Delhi or Kolkata.

The centre of Bangalore has tree lined avenues and people fight to save their trees from widening roads and gigantic flyovers. Sadly, it’s often, a losing battle. In late January, February and March you see bluey-purple Jacaranda, interspersed with golden laburnum. May is a blaze of scarlet Gul Mohur. Each season has something new to offer. The old parts are changing rapidly though, because land prices have gone sky high. The result of the Bangalore boom is that huge tracts of agricultural lands and fertile farm lands have been gobbled up to grow the city.